Old NFO’s post http://oldnfo.blogspot.com/ on SWATH vessels brought back a fond memory, though only marginally related.
Every year Seattle has Seafair Week and the Navy brings in several ships they open to the public. I imagine this is a royal pain for the Navy personnel. One year I took my then preteen younger two sons to the waterfront to see the ships. The lines for the carriers and other big ships were way too long for us. Off on it’s own was a ship with no lines so there we went.
The ship was the USS Pigeon (ASR-21), a catamaran hulled submarine rescue ship. We were aboard three hours and saw everything from the keel up. During that time, there were perhaps ten other visitors. Obviously, a bored crew happy to have visitors. At one point I breathed a helium/oxygen mix, then did the Donald Duck talk, much to the delight of my sons. The visit, for my sons, was a great adventure. I enjoyed the chance to compare Navy service to my Army service. My only exposure to the Navy, at that time, was fourteen days on a troop ship (General Rose).
Sorry, recruiters, the visit didn’t make my sons interested in joining the Navy, but it remains a fond family memory.
3 comments:
Glad you enjoyed your little slice of the Navy, and yes Fleet Week IS a royal pain, you would not BELIEVE what switches, handles, valves, etc. can get turned by 'curious' people... sigh...
I can only imagine the checklists you had to run after all the visitors. Circa Germany early 60's, my float bridge company would have a weeks training on the Rhine River near Leeheim where the old Rhine meets the new Rhine. On Sunday, we would close the river and bridge the whole width. Quite a sight and we would have a hundred or so German civilians come to see it.
My First Sergeant had his version of Fleet Week. We would lay out a tarp and display a few weapons (M2 .50, M-14 7.62 NATO, and a 3.5 Rocket Launcher). Our visitors were extremely polite. We were relaxed and let the visitors handle the weapons. Very humbling to see a 40 year old man show his young son how to field strip a M2; faster than we could. Even more humbling to realize our fathers had to fight and defeat these men. Without endorsing anything about the Nazis, you were impressed by the competence of these men.
Yep, had they had competent leadership, things 'would' have gotten interesting...
Post a Comment